This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday December 11 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
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Fistgate V: Youth Fisting Instructor Claims Kevin Jennings Knew About Class Content in Advance (GatewayPundit)
In March 2000 Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was the keynote speaker at a controversial youth conference at Tuft’s University.
snip
She later said that she was disappointed that she became the Fistgate scapegoat. She also said that the organizers knew beforehand what the “sexuality educators” would discuss with children at the “fisting” workshop.
Kevin Jennings, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee, was one of the organizers of the “educational” material at the state level.
Mass Resistance blog reported: Jennings, after all, worked hand in hand with the Mass. Department of Education from the beginning, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee, which set up the statewide program, “Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students” in the DOE.
That is the program the fisting workshop instructors worked for… Rod Dreher wrote in the Weekly Standard (July 2000): The [Fistgate] tapes went out anyway [despite GLSEN's threat of a lawsuit for "illegal wiretapping"] and became a talk radio sensation. On May 19, state education chief
David Driscoll canned Abels and Netherland and terminated Gaucher’s contract. But Driscoll also insisted that the controversial workshop was an aberration that shouldn’t be allowed to derail the entire program.
Abels fumed to the press that the education department had known perfectly well what she had been doing for years and hadn’t cared until the tapes had surfaced.
Camenker, ironically, agreed. The Mass News website also confirmed this in 2001, via Mass Resistance: “[W]e flew sort of below the radar screen for a long time,” Margot Abels told Boston’s homosexual newspaper, Bay Windows.
She taught them sex because she thought she knew better than the parents what should be taught to the children. She says she had the support of state officials during her seven years at the state Department of Education.
“We always knew that we were working in an area that in certain places was considered really controversial and we also knew that we were doing cutting edge work and that there are plenty of people that don’t support doing work with gay kids.
But I think that we flew sort of below the radar screen for a long time and were able to, and had the complete support of our agency.
Maybe David Driscoll [Commissioner of Education] didn’t always know everything that we did, but certainly our supervisors did,” said Abels.
And, in an interview in Ocotber 2001 with Massachusetts News Brian Camenker from Mass Resistance also confirmed that the DOE leadership knew exactly what was being promoted at the GLSEN meetings:
Camenker: Well you see the DOE tried to paint her as this anomaly, someone who just came in and did something bad. The department is made up of people just as radical as she is and in many cases more radical.
And so, when Driscoll, the Commissioner, and the others tried to say that what she had done was unusual and said it would never happen again, they were a bunch of liars.
In fact, they weren’t shocked at all. They knew what was going on. They helped her plan it and they approved it at every level.
When the people there heard about what she was doing when we first told them about it, they weren’t surprised.
This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the DOE knew about it and planned it and was actually very comfortable with what she did. The only reason that they fired her was because of the immense public outrage.
Kevin Jennings, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee and founder of GLSEN, helped plan and organize the “educational material” at the conference.
Today Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama’s National Safe School Czar.
Fistgate IV: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Passed Out Gay Bar Guides to Teens at GLSEN Events (GatewayPundit)
Only in the Obama White House can a man with a history of handing out bar guides to teens be promoted to Safe Schools Czar.
Earlier today it was reported that Kevin Jennings’ Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization was distributing gay bar directories to high school students at the 2005 Massachusetts GLSEN conference.
This wasn’t an isolated incident. Mass Resistance Blog today reported that GLSEN passed out directories to gay “leather” bars to teens at several of their events.
GLSEN organization also passed out guides to gay leather bars in Chicago to students in 2000. World Net Daily reported:
LaBarbera questioned why GLSEN’s organizers — already bruising over the recent arrest of a Chicago GLSEN leader for soliciting sex with an underage boy (GLSEN expelled the man) — did not take the “simple step of keeping these gay sex club ads from reaching the teenagers in their care.”
“For years, GLSEN has claimed to protect ‘at-risk’ kids. But they are now helping put young teenage boys at risk by uncritically passing out a gay guide that hawks anonymous sex clubs and ‘leather’ bars in Chicago,” he said.
“This fits into a pattern of GLSEN failing to shield its young followers from a homosexual male sexual culture that not only tolerates, but often celebrates promiscuity.” (At last year’s GLSEN conference in Atlanta, a similar sexually-laden booklet was passed out to attendees.)
Jennings’ organization handed out bar guides to teenagers.
Today Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar. You figure it out.
Congressman Burgess calls on Obama to fire Jennings (Washington Times-Water Cooler)
Rep. Mike Burgess (R - TX) wrote to President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan today, referencing today's Washington Times editorial on Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Assistant Deputy Secretary Kevin Jennings.
The congressman requested Mr. Obama dismiss Mr. Jennings from his job as the Department's Safe School's Czar. Mr Burgess addressed his concerns on the presidential appointee.
Nielsen Business Media folds Editor & Publisher (Poynter Online)(Too good not to be posted again)
Editor and Publisher just slimed Sarah Palin yesterday and now it's gutted like a dead moose. The execrable Greg Mitchell is out of work right here before Christmas!
Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter.
e5 Global Media Holdings has also agreed to acquire our Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows.
In addition, we’ve made the decision to cease operations for Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews.
This move will allow us to strengthen investment in our core businesses – those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth – and ensure our long-term success.
We remain committed to building our trade show group and affiliated brands. These assets continue to be a key part of The Nielsen Company’s overall portfolio and we strongly believe they are positioned to grow as the economy recovers.
In addition, we’ll continue to assess the strategic fit of our remaining portfolio of publications.
As a result of these decisions, many of our friends and colleagues within these businesses will be leaving the company or will begin to transition to the new ownership immediately.
These venerable brands have long been an important part of our Business Media family, and we are pleased that e5 will continue to capitalize on the brands’ potential.
The transition is expected to be complete by the end of the year. Pluribus Capital was founded in 2009 by James Finkelstein, George Green and Matthew Doull to focus on acquiring and managing industry leading media properties with high growth potential, particularly those with strong brand recognition across multiple platforms including digital, print and events.
Guggenheim Partners is a privately held, diversified financial services firm. Both Pluribus and Guggenheim have strong track records of successfully managing investments in a variety of companies.
I want to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to our colleagues who will be leaving the company for their dedication and commitment to Nielsen over the years.
Please join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors. Regards,
This is NOT the handwriting on the wall. This is the thundering, rumbling sound the wrecking ball makes just before knocks the wall down!”
The editor, Greg Mitchell, was a shameless and dishonest dirty socialist what politicized the publication far, far beyond the scope of its mission.
Editor & Publisher died today, after a length illness.
Reportedly, the self described “America’s Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry” succumbed to ink poisoning.
A 2001 survey of 350 newspapers in six states indicated that copy editors and their supervisors were more likely to read E&P than any other magazine in the journalistic trade press, with 80.6% of copy editors and 90.6% of supervisors reporting that they read it either regularly or occasionally.
Greg Mitchell’s books, in case you didn’t know his leftist politics...
* The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s E.P.I.C. Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics by Greg Mitchell (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991), ISBN 0-87113-467-5 Winner of the 1993 Goldsmith Book Prize
* Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial by Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell (Avon Books, 1996), ISBN 0-380-72764-1 (Diane Pub Co, 1995), (Putnam Pub Group 1995), ISBN 0-399-14072-7 ISBN 0-7881-9992-7
* Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir by Greg Mitchell (Pocket Books, 2000), (Washington Square Press, 2002), ISBN 0-671-03532-0 ISBN 0-671-03531-2
* Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon Vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950 by Greg Mitchell (Random House Inc, 1998), ISBN 0-679-41621-8
* Truth.. and Consequences: 7 Who Would Not Be Silenced by Greg Mitchell (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1987), ISBN 0-934878-08-0
* Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970S, from the Pages of Crawdaddy, Peter Knobler and Greg Mitchell (editors) (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, April 1, 1995), ISBN 0-684-80069-1 ISBN 0-02-022005-7
* Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions by Robert Jay Lifton; Greg Mitchell (William Morrow & Co, November 1, 2000), (Perennial, February 1, 2002), ISBN 0-380-79246-X ISBN 0-380-97498-3
* So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed in Iraq, by Greg Mitchell (Union Square Press, March 4, 2008) ISBN 1402756577 ISBN 978-1402756573
Editor & Publisher’s Been Folded
After years of covering the death of newspapers, we here at Fitz & Jen got to experience it first-hand this morning.
The Nielsen Company has made the decision to cease operations of E&P in its 125th year.
It’s early in this process, so it’s not clear yet whether there will be another print issue of magazine, or what will happen to the Fitz & Jen blog.
And while Editor and Publisher FAILED, Andrew Breitbart is launching journalism site - Big Journalism (Politico.com)
Online conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart announced Thursday that he is launching a new website in January designed to report its own original journalism and take on “the Democratic-media complex.”
The site – to be called Big Journalism – builds on the “Big” brand Breitbart launched in September with Big Hollywood and Big Government.
Both sites have made waves with stories exposing past controversial remarks by Obama administration officials and by featuring a series of videos of ACORN officials inappropriately offering advice to two conservative activists dressed up as a pimp and prostitute.
He also helps edit the Drudge Report and runs the news aggregator Breitbart.com.
Breitbart made the announcement in an interview with Mediate, telling the website covering media-related news that Big Journalism will be “the go-to site for solidly backed-up stories, sharp points of view, and really great writing.”
The food signup sheet for a holiday potluck party at the L.A. Times went up this week but, as with anything at this embattled news organization, the list was fraught with meaning.
“I wondered,” said one reporter, “what happens if so-and-so gets laid off and their name gets crossed out? There’ll be no Swedish meatballs this year.”
For weeks, rumors about 2009’s third round of layoffs have been bubbling up like methane from La Brea Tar Pits.
Many Times employees questioned say they’re not in the gossip loop, but others insist that a meeting of section editors will convene next week to get the ball rolling on dismissals.
Word variously places the date as Dec. 15 or Dec. 18 -- a Friday, the traditional pink slip day.
One silver-lining rumor has it that the hard-hit Metro section will be either nearly or completely spared this time around. Still, as one longtime writer observed, whatever happens is going to be perceived as unfair by any department that suffers cuts.
(No Times staffers who spoke to TheWrap agreed to be quoted by name.)
Management is spinning the pending dismissals not as not a new round of layoffs but merely a tapering off of October’s pink-slip blizzard, and after this holiday round of layoffs, none are expected until, possibly, the spring.
Scuttlebutt says the layoff figure could be as many as 40; the Times policy is to refuse to answer questions about layoff rumors.
That’s of little comfort to staffers who increasingly find their city’s newspaper of record having its editorial roster cut to the bone, with more writers putting in days that last as long as 18 hours.
The writers’ masthead is now on track to tap out at half of its former complement.
“We’re long past the point of signing petitions and standing up to make statements,” said a veteran writer about the mood at the paper in response to cutbacks.
“People are now looking for an effective, rational response, not one that’s been tried and found wanting in the past. Instead of dramatic speeches and walkouts, we’re putting stuff on the website that people want to read.”
All of this plays out against the backdrop of the bankruptcy struggle of the Times’ parent company, the Tribune Company.
One legal difficulty has been in trying to untangle the various business entities that comprise the densely integrated corporation.
One staffer sketched out three lose-lose possibilities, in which the current management under publisher Eddy Hartenstein consolidates power over the paper; or the paper’s creditors gain control and fire management, including Hartenstein; or new owners sell off Tribune’s individual pieces, sending all of them into the deep space of uncertainty.
For now anything goes, though, and Swedish meatballs are still on the menu.
Toronto Star says 166 employees take buyouts (The Canadian Press)
TORONTO — The Toronto Star says 166employees will take severance packages at the country's largest circulation daily newspaper as part of broad cost cuts.
Company spokesman Bob Hepburn said Wednesday that the Star accepted all of the applications made by staff from across its operations.
However, he stopped short of saying that this will wrap up job cuts at the newspaper for certain. "All of this (will be) discussed with the union first," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Star confirmed that another 12 jobs had been eliminated at its operations, covering roles from editorial to management.
Hepburn said the layoffs include three editorial assistants, four graphic artists, a researcher and an office messenger. Also in the tally were two managers and one administrative assistant, which the company considered "departures" rather than layoffs.
Those employees have 90 days left at the company, under the union's collective agreement. During that period, the union could reach an agreement with the company, or find new roles for those employees within the organization.
Maureen Dawson, chairwoman of the Toronto Star unit of the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild, said with some workers leaving voluntarily, that could mean other employees lined up to lose their jobs could instead find a new position at the company.
"That will be a discussion we'll be having in the coming months for sure," she said.
The cuts come as the newspaper's parent company, Torstar Corp.
(TSX:TS.B), moves ahead with what it says will likely be the biggest restructuring in the Toronto Star's history.
Torstar had already announced plans to cut as many as 121 editorial jobs at the Star, which includes outsourcing some of its operations, in a move it says could save the company more than $4million a year.
The Star employs about 1,300 staff across all its divisions, including its press centre in Vaughan.
WASHINGTON – California and other financially strapped states will lose tens of millions of federal dollars that they spend to jail illegal immigrants charged with crimes, under Congress’ latest spending bill.
The $1.1 trillion plan, finalized by House and Senate negotiators Tuesday night, combines six of the large yearly appropriations bills passed by Congress to keep the government running.
State officials and members of the California congressional delegation had lobbied hard once again to increase aid to the states for the program, hoping to cash in on California’s increased clout in Washington this year.
But their efforts fell flat, with the program set to be cut by more than 18 percent...
snip
Tom McClintock of Elk Grove said the federal government should be paying the entire bill.
"I think the federal government has a 100 percent responsibility to fund the incarceration of illegal aliens since the federal government has exclusive responsibility over the integrity of our borders," he said.
"Not one of those illegal aliens would be in our prisons today, nor would it have been possible for them to commit their crimes, had it not been for the abandonment by the federal government under Republican and Democratic administrations to protect the integrity of our borders."
It makes sense that Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress would do this. Illegal aliens can’t vote while they are in prison for some niggling crime.
And of course shutting down our prison system in toto has been a lifelong dream of the Democrats’ sugar daddy, George Soros.
PRINCETON, NJ — For the first time in Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, a majority of Americans — 55% — say the honesty and ethical standards of "members of Congress" are low or very low — slightly worse than "senators," whose ethics are rated low by 49%.
By contrast, 83% of Americans say nurses have either very high or high ethical standards, positioning them at the top of Gallup’s 2009 ranking of various professions...
Bottom Line
Congress has long ranked among the worst-rated professions on Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions list.
Now, it has earned the unwelcome distinction of having a majority of Americans rate its integrity as low or very low...
We’re not quite sure how this is news. Or why it should have taken so long for Gallup to notice.
And notice how Gallup’s chart still puts Congress above car salesmen, even though their aggregate number is lower.
By the way, note too who are at the very top of the Gallup rankings. People from our supposedly despised healthcare system.
How Liberals “Help” the Homeless: Shelter Gave Fed $ to Democrats (Debbie Schlussel)
People have the faulty impression that only liberals care about the homeless. Wrong. It’s just that conservatives have a different way of doing it.
And liberals . . . well, some of them “help” the homeless by using federal dollars for the homeless to fund Democrat political candidates and office holders.
That’s exactly what Jon Rutherford, director of Metro Emergency Services, a homeless shelter, and his bookkeeper, Judith Bugaiski, did.
They were indicted in 2006, and yesterday, pleaded guilty. And–shocker!–Detroit’s embattled former Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick is involved, as is failed Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.
The two top officials of a homeless shelter accused of funneling $750,000 in taxpayer dollars to political causes associated with officials ranging from Kwame Kilpatrick to Gov. Jennifer Granholm pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal tax evasion charges.
Jon Rutherford, director of Metro Emergency Services, and bookkeeper Judith Bugaiski were indicted in 2006 on a combined 22 counts.
They both appeared Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani and pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to evade federal taxes, in exchange for dismissal of the other charges.
Prosecutors allege Rutherford, 60, of Orchard Lake, a major contributor to Michigan Democrats, created a shell company to collect rent from the shelter, then channeled that money to political causes.
As a nonprofit, the shelter would have lost its tax-exempt status if it made political donations.
According to documents the Free Press obtained, IRS investigators said the shell company “spends virtually every dollar it receives” from the shelter “on either so-called charitable contributions, political contributions, political action committees and to individuals.”
The IRS said recipients of thousands of dollars included the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, Kilpatrick’s Next Generation PAC and Granholm’s 1998 inauguration party.
The IRS probe stems from a 2001 Free Press report that revealed Rutherford gave $50,000 to the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund during Kilpatrick’s 2001 run for mayor.
Kilpatrick, then an influential state representative, subsequently wrote a letter to the Detroit-Wayne County Mental Health Board, recommending it give Rutherford a multimillion-dollar contract.
Enabling ACORN's Comeback (American spectator) ACORN may be the Dem’s best hope in 2010 - get the dead, incarcerated and criminally insane to vote. Multiple times.
Congress -- and possibly Citigroup -- may be gearing up to start funding the organized crime syndicate ACORN again. The current federal funding ban expires Dec. 18 On Tuesday evening the House Appropriations Committee rejected on a party line vote of 9 to 5 an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that would have blocked federal funding of the radical advocacy group.
The amendment was needed because the Obama administration thumbed its nose at a provision in spending legislation that banned ACORN funding until the end of next week.
In a ruling revealed late last month by the Justice Department the Obama administration invented a loophole allowing the government to continue funding the president's friends at ACORN.
Through the magic of legal interpretation, the language forbidding funding the group was transformed by Acting Assistant Attorney General David J. Barron into a requirement not "to refuse payment on binding contractual obligations that predate" the original funding ban.
Latham's amendment would have closed the loophole by banning funding for ACORN, including any funding covering "a contract or other agreement entered into before the date of the enactment of this or any such other Act."
The bottom line is that the ACORN funding prohibition language remains in the massive fiscal 2010 spending measure taken up by appropriators this week but ACORN ally Eric Holder's Justice Department has rendered that language virtually meaningless.
Dems Vote Again to Fund Corrupt ACORN With Taxpayer Dollars(GatewayPundit)
In March Senate Democrats voted to fund ACORN in their National Service Act by a part line vote of 53-43.
ACORN is the largest radical leftist group in America today. This radical group worked closely with the Obama camp during the election. But, the community organizing group was not open about this.
One of Barack Obama’s first big “community organizer” jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He has been working along side ACORN since before he became an elected official.
Obama also trained ACORN employees. He represented ACORN in court. Obama worked with and protested with ACORN. His campaign donated $800,000 to ACORN in 2008 for voter registration efforts. And, ACORN even canvassed for Obama last year.
Yesterday, Democrats voted again to fund the corrupt leftist organization ACORN.
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) reported at Big Government: Last night, defying the will of a bipartisan majority of the House and Senate, Democrats voted to allow the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to receive federal taxpayer dollars.
In September, large Congressional majorities in both houses voted to sever all ties between the federal government and ACORN. The Senate vote was 85-11; the House vote was 345-75.
You’d think that those votes, which USA Today described as prohibiting “any federal funding for the community organizing group,” would have settled the matter. You’d be wrong.
Months later, with the country’s focus on jobs, healthcare, and the Global War on Terror, Democrats are moving to restore funding to ACORN.
Last night, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) offered an amendment during deliberations on the Democrats’ massive year-end appropriations bill to clarify the prohibition on federal funds going to ACORN or its subsidiaries.
That amendment was shot down on a 5-9 party line vote as Republicans sided with taxpayers while Democrats stood with ACORN.
Rep. Latham’s amendment is necessary to prevent taxpayer money from going to ACORN because the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice has taken advantage of a legal loophole to allow ACORN to continue to receive federal funds – despite the passage of the House GOP’s Defund ACORN Act in the fall.
Gov't program only helps 31,000 out of 760,000 borrowers so far (AP)
WASHINGTON – Just over 31,000 homeowners have received permanent loan modifications under the Obama administration's mortgage relief plan, a big setback for the government's embattled effort to stem the foreclosure crisis.
Lenders blame the low success rate — only about 4 percent of the nearly 760,000 borrowers who have signed up — on borrowers who don't return the necessary paperwork to complete the process.
Bank of America Corp., for example, had only completed 98 modifications at the end of November, far fewer than several smaller rivals. GMAC Mortgage completed 7,100, the most of any lender in the program, which was launched in March.
Tough road for Rangel on tax push (Tax-cheat Charlie will press tax-cheat Timmy) (The Hill)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) wants to push a tax reform overhaul through Congress in 2010.
The question is whether anyone will get behind the proposal offered by the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats’ agenda for 2010 is already crowded with a number of priorities, and the looming election will have leaders carefully selecting what to take up.
There’s also the question of the ethics investigations targeting Rangel, which have weakened the chairman of one of Congress’s most powerful panels.
Rangel appears undeterred, and there are many reasons to think 2010 will be a big year for taxes.
It has been more than 20 years since the last great tax reform, and the expiration of some of former President George W. Bush’s individual tax cuts could give reform an impetus.
It’s also a priority for the chairman of the House’s tax-writing panel.
On Tuesday, Rangel said he’ll press Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this week to support broad tax reform in 2010.
Rangel told executives at a PricewaterhouseCoopers symposium that he wants to “persuade” Geithner and members of his committee that they would serve Congress and the country better “if we reform the tax system that we have.”
Sarah Palin Says Critics Of Her WaPo Op-ed 'Got All Wee-Weed Up' (Newsbusters.org)
Showing the sense of humor millions of Americans fell in love with last year, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Thursday that critics of her previous day's op-ed in the Washington Post
"kind of got all wee-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers."
Palin, chatting with conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, was obviously poking fun at something President Obama said over the summer:
"There's something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up."
According to Palin, who might have been referring to derogatory comments from folks like MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Keith Olbermann, such was the reaction to her published views on global warming and the United Nations climate change conference currently taking place in Copenhagen.
Dalai Lama: Obama's Nobel Prize Is 'A Little Early' (Fox News) The Dalai Lama is right. 0ba-Mao hasn’t done nearly as much as Arafat did.
The exiled Tibetan leader won the Nobel Peace Prize 20 years ago for his peaceful opposition to Chinese rule in his country, but believes President Obama was awarded the prize "a little" too soon.
Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech: Where's Kanye West when you need him? (The Telegraph)
It was one of the lowest moments in 2009 for American celebrity. Taylor Swift was accepting her MTV Music Video Award for best female artist, but Kanye West thought he knew better.
He leapt on stage, nicked the microphone, and offered this crude interruption:
It became an internet phenomenon. The words “I’mma let you finish” were plastered onto image after image online, and Kanye West was universally condemned.
He was even called a “jackass” by Barack Obama.
But we really could have done with Kanye West today, during the US President’s acceptance speech for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Others are “far more deserving than I” he said, adding that he received the award with “deep gratitude and great humility”.
Great humility? More like great humiliation.
Obama does not deserve this prize. He knows it. And America knows it (just 19% of the US public think it was deserved).
In fact, the only people that don’t know it are the “Distinguished Members” of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Obama, the Empty-suit Nobel Laureate (The Washington Times)
The decision to award Mr. Obama the peace prize was made during the period of irrational exuberance - the Obamamania - that attended his ascent to power.
Nominations closed Feb. 1, when he had been in office less than two weeks.
The lingering sense developed that the noteworthy achievement the committee wanted to recognize was either that Mr. Obama was not George W. Bush, or that he was black.
Unless you are Barack Hussein Obama, you generally don't get awards in life for just showing up.
Norway Should Apologize for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (MensNewsDaily.com )
Most descriptions of the award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama have been shortened.
The Nobel Prize website says it has been awarded to Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
One of the criticisms of this award is that it was decided after Obama was in office for only 9 days.
Having actually expended very little effort, other than campaigning for the office, and having actually accomplished nothing seems antithetic to the letter and spirit of Alfred Nobel's desire to reward and acknowledge those who have done the most for humanity.
One must wonder, if awards are now given on the basis of hope for some desirable change, whether the awardee will live up to expectations.
As he receives the award, many people are wondering how he'll “thread the needle” to comment on his new Afghanistan “surge” strategy; obviously recalling how much the left complained when Bush did it.
But perhaps more to the point, in context; let's reflect a little on a past nominee, Adolf Hitler, and how well Obama stacks up.
Hitler after all, formed an alliance with Japan, united Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in the current spirit of the EU, negotiated non-aggression pacts with Poland and the Soviet Union, and made peace with Neville Chamberlain in the United Kingdom.
As a result of his efforts, a strong international community developed and the role of the United Nations grew.
In fact, had it not been for the stubborn resistance of right-wing zealots, World War II could have been completely avoided and all of Europe would have united by the middle of the last century – with the prospect of “global governance” not far away.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee can't stop mentioning Obama's political commitment to the issue of global warming.
As Obama steps up to the podium today to accept the prize, the world is waking up to the fact that the global warming scare has all been propaganda.
The objective is not unlike what Hitler had in mind and there are no assurances that another world-war will not result from the effort.
When the award was given to Al Gore and the IPCC two years ago, also for their efforts in promoting the global warming scam, it has been clear that the Norwegian committee is a tool in a new game of centralizing political power, promoting corruption, and waging war against democracy and freedom. Perhaps an apology isn't enough.
Bolton: Obama's 'Pedestrian, Turgid, and Uninspired' Address (The National Review)
Earlier today, Pres. Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in a ceremony in Oslo. Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama’s address in the Norwegian capital was “pedestrian, turgid, and uninspired.”
The speech was also typical of Obama in its self-centeredness and ‘something for everybody’ approach.”
“It was so diffuse that though I wouldn’t call it incoherent, it was getting close,” says Bolton.
“It was a lot about him, again, especially with his comments about being at the ‘beginning, not end’ of his labors for the world.”
Obama made some “breathtakingly simpleminded statements in his section on humanity’s history of war and the ‘hard truth’ that war will not end in our lifetimes,” adds Bolton.
“No kidding. I don’t know what that is supposed to prove.”
GE wins $1.4 billion wind farm contract (cnet.com) Wow, look at that. Another contract for a big Obama donor.
Power company Caithness Energy has given General Electric a $1.4 billion contract to supply wind turbines and 10 years' worth of maintenance for an Oregon wind farm, GE announced Thursday.
The massive 845-megawatt wind farm, Shepherds Flat, will be located near Arlington, Oregon, but span approximately 30 square miles and cover parts of Oregon's Gilliam and Morrow Counties.
He (the GE president) “paid” Obama back today with (another) serial condemnation of “excessive” pay (for executives of companies, NOT unions, government workers, or democrat thugs (er, ACORN) extortionists ....) Follow the money.
Reid it and weep: Harry's history hooey (NY Post )
The Democratic leadership, in its efforts to destroy the US economy by passing an ill-conceived health plan, has sunk to a new low (" 'Slavery' Slur at GOPers," Dec. 8).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's tirade, accusing the Republican Party of using the same tactics as those supporting slavery, is a desperate attempt to distort a debate about spending.
It was President Lincoln, a Republican, who freed the slaves as Southern Democrats revolted.
Reid is a disgrace to the ethical values necessary to serve this nation.
All the issues Reid brought up were directly in support of individual freedoms.
Passing this health monstrosity takes some of those very freedoms away.
Harry Reid Cancels New Orleans Fundraiser With Mary Landrieu (GatewayPundit)
The fundraiser for Harry Reid in New Orleans this weekend has been cancelled. Reid and Landrieu say they will be in Washington working on ramming through Obamacare.
Harry Reid gifted Landrieu with $300 million after her vote to open debate on Obamacare.
It was announced around the same time that she would hold a fundraiser for Harry Reid in December.
NOLA.com reported: A New Orleans fundraiser scheduled Saturday for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been canceled as the Senate expects to stay in session over the weekend to continue consideration on the health care overhaul bill.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and political strategist James Carville were to host a brunch for Reid at the St. Charles Avenue home of businessman David Voelker.
The entry level contribution was $4,800. Landrieu’s office said she would not be in Louisiana this weekend because she will be working on the health care legislation, which is likely to be shaped by floor votes
House Democrats passed a massive $447 billion appropriations conference report Thursday to fund a host of different government agencies in fiscal 2010.
The conference report, approved on a 221-202 vote, didn't get any support from House Republicans, who raised concerns about spending increases.
snip
GOP members raised concerns that the bills will contribute to a 12 percent discretionary spending increase over last year.
"Sadly, the misplaced priorities of this Congress have resulted in too much spending, fewer jobs and bigger government that the public doesn’t want and can’t afford," said Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the top House GOP appropriator.
The tip of the Climategate iceberg (Washington Times)
A skeptical public repeatedly has been told that questions about purported global warming are closed.
"I think everybody is clear on the science. I think scientists are clear on the science ...
I think that this notion that there's some debate ... on the science is kind of silly," said President Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs when asked Monday about the president's response to the controversy. The flack was talking smack.
Contrary to the whitewash job conducted by propagandists, there are 450 academic peer-reviewed journal articles questioning the importance of man-made global warming.
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine has collected more than 30,000 American scientists urging the U.S. government to reject the Kyoto Treaty, which pushes draconian measures to reduce carbon emissions.
Much hay is made of 2,500 United Nations scientists who back Kyoto, but there are many more scientists with Ph.D.s among the 30,000 skeptics than there are among the oft-cited 2,500, most of whom are government bureaucrats without advanced degrees.
That's hardly meant to be a blanket endorsement of the work done by all those holding doctorates in the field.
There are significant problems with the three most-relied-on data series used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report.
The report was derived from research at the University of East Anglia, NASA and the British...
Monday’s declaration by the Environmental Protection Administration that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health is apparently a regulatory fraud.
It was made after EPA regulators refused to consider a report from a leading EPA scientist rejecting the theory that emission of greenhouse gases causes global warming.
The EPA’s highly-publicized action declared, “…GHGs [greenhouse gases] are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.”
The EPA declaration was puffed to the media as the way the Obama administration could impose limits on carbon dioxide emissions despite the fact that its “cap and trade” bill -- which passed the House earlier this year -- remains stalled in the Senate.
It was obviously intended to increase pressure on the Senate to pass the House “cap and tax” bill and to give Obama leeway in Copenhagen to promise -- perhaps even agree to treaty limitations -- on U.S. carbon emissions.
...And now the EPA has its own “Climategate.” It is in the report by EPA’s Dr. Alan Carlin who was -- according to this July 16 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson -- subjected to a gag order.
The March 16, 2009 report by Dr. Alan Carlin says -- among other things -- that “As of the best information we currently have, the GHG/CO2 hypothesis as to the cause of global warming, which this Draft TSD supports, is currently an invalid hypothesis from a scientific viewpoint because it fails a number of critical comparisons with available observable data.
Any one of these failings should be enough to invalidate the hypothesis;
Republicans Plan to Form Counter-Delegation at Climate Conference (Fox)
A GOP counter-delegation is forming to undermine the Obama administration's work on an international climate change agreement in Copenhagen, warning that the president is poised to make commitments he can't keep and drawing heightened attention to controversial leaked e-mails.
At least a half-dozen Republican senators and representatives are planning to head to Denmark next week, as part of the overall U.S. congressional delegation, which includes plenty of Democrats as well.
But the Republicans have a markedly different agenda. "Truth squad," is how Sen. Jim Inhofe spokesman Matt Dempsey described the GOP team.
He called the Democratic visitors to the conference the "doom squad."
The Oklahoma Republican and ardent global warming skeptic plans to head to Denmark along with Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Barrasso of Wyoming.
On the House side, Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Joe Barton of Texas and Darrell Issa of California are tentatively planning to attend.
Congress Considers $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill -- 2 billion for climate research!!( Fox)
Wow ... do you know how much data you can fabricate for $2 Billion?
Fabricated data is less than half the cost of real data. Think of the research that can be done with this..... it boggles the mind.
And $2 billion would be poured into climate change research, $75 million more than last year.
Congressional negotiators have come to an agreement on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government after the middle of this month.
This spending bill would fund nine Cabinet agencies and all the programs within them for the fiscal year that began in October.
It also includes $49 billion for foreign aid, a third more than last year.
NASA would get $18.7 billion, almost a billion dollars more than last year.
A heating program for the poor would get $5.1 billion, about 40 percent more than President Obama requested.
Another $2.5 billion would go to high speed trains, in addition to the $8 billion in the stimulus package passed earlier this year.
But the bill cuts nearly $300 million from the $4.4 billion that Obama requested in economic and security aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Democrats also are using this spending bill to change the 1988 Dornan amendment, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions in Washington, D.C. The bill adds the word "federal" to the amendment to allow the D.C. government to use local dollars for funding abortion.
Republican critics say this is an accounting gimmick to find a way to use public dollars to pay for abortions.
The House could vote on this bill as early as Thursday.
Tycoon: Finance Gap May Doom Climate Talks [Soros Demands Additional $100 Billion] CBSNews
Money Proposed by Rich Nations to Help Poor Adapt to Climate Change is Insufficient, Says U.S. Billionaire George Soros George Soros, businessman and philanthropist, announces during a press conference a plan to generate an additional 100 billion US dollars for climate change relief at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen
The $10 billion a year proposed by rich nations to help the poor adapt to climate change is "not sufficient" and the gap between what's offered and what's needed could wreck the Copenhagen climate conference, American billionaire George Soros said Thursday.
At a European Union summit in Brussels, meanwhile, wealthier members of the 27-nation bloc were having to press poorer, reluctant neighbors in Eastern Europe to contribute to the $10 billion fund.
"Europe should take its fair share" of the $5 billion to $7 billion a year target sum for 2010-2012, said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
The EU is expected to announce later Thursday the amount of money it will offer to impoverished, developing nations.
Britain has said it will contribute $1.3 billion over three years, and Sweden will give euro800million ($1.2 billion). German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would contribute but gave no figure.
The Healthcare Polling Data That Has Democrats So Freaked Out (The Business Insider)
Polled support for the health care plan wending its way through Congress continues to crash downward in the polls.
And before you say it, it's not just Rasmussen, which has actually been pretty much in the middle of the other polls. Here's where we stand as of today.
For reform advocates, this is not good news. At 40% approval, it probably passes. At 30% approval--what Social Security reform enjoyed by the time it imploded--it's not going to no matter how the Senate massages their plan.
Democrats cannot pass a bill this large on a straight party line vote if the only people in the country who want it are Democrats.
Where is the line crossed between "probably will" and "probably won't"?
In September, a seasoned political reporter told me that the numbers could not go "much lower" before Democrats were forced to abandon the bill. Well, it's lower--and the disapproval is spiking.
The silver lining in this for reform advocates over the last few days has been Nate Silver's argument that a significant portion of the opposition to the plan was coming from the left:
Ipsos also asked a parallel question of people who supported the plan: did any of them support the plan because they oppose health care reform and thought that the plan was sufficiently watered-down so as to "keep health care reform from happening"?
A small number of people picked this response: about 10 percent of those in favor of the plan, or 3 percent of the entire sample. Combining these numbers together, we get the following:
We'll cover everyone by covering less? DeathCare (MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel)
We'll cover everyone by covering less?
Now, said the Senate to us sheep, we'll do health care this way: No public option. Just a, um, public option.
Senate Democrats' leaders, looking to pass something, on Tuesday night dropped the notion of a government-run health plan.
Too many of their less liberal members recognized a money pit when they saw one. Instead, the plan is to let more middle-aged people join their elders in Medicare.
Uh, guys: Medicare is government-run. It's eight years away from fiscal ruin, its own trustees reported earlier this year. This deal trades a dysfunctional plan for a laughable one.
It also reveals the futility of Obamacare reaching one of its key goals: slowing the rise in health care spending. Congress' plans all do this in part by cutting Medicare by as much as a half-trillion dollars.
Now the Senate would put perhaps 3 million more subsidized clients on that Titanic. There will be no cuts, only swifter collapse.
10 Million Could Lose Employer Coverage Under Senate Health Bill, CBO Says (FOXNews.com)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 10 million people could lose their employer-based insurance coverage under the Senate's health care reform bill.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 10 million people could lose their employer-based insurance coverage under the Senate's health care reform bill.
In new figures out Monday, the nonpartisan office said the net loss would add up to about 5 million -- the anticipated loss of employer coverage on one end would be offset in part by the expectation that a new mandate would drive other employers to cover millions more workers who are not currently covered.
But the estimate assumes many employers, particularly small businesses with low-wage workers, would opt to pay the fine and drop their insurance plans.
The CBO estimated this would affect between 9 million and 10 million workers.
The estimate was provided after Republicans pressed the CBO for details on employer coverage, and it added fuel to the GOP argument that President Obama's claim that nobody will be forced to give up their private coverage is bunk.
It comes in the middle of a heated debate in the Senate over whether and how the government should enter the market with its own insurance plan.
"If you like what you have you can't keep it," the Senate Republican office said in an e-mail highlighting the CBO report and keying off the president's refrain.
Though some of those who lose their coverage would be eligible for government subsidies to buy insurance, some would not, according to the CBO.
For instance, a family of four making more than $88,000 would not qualify for subsidies and could face even higher premiums in the private market
Health alarm finally rouses Mike [Bloomberg]and gov (New York Post)
Better late than never, Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg have woken up to a pending disaster aimed at New York, otherwise known as the health-care overhaul.
A letter they wrote to Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand is so damning about the cost to the city and state that two questions arise.
First, why are Schumer and Gillibrand, along with local House Democrats, supporting legislation that would slam the home team?
Second, why did Paterson and Bloomberg not speak up sooner, given the Medicare cuts and tax hikes they suddenly worry about have been on the table all along?
Paterson and Bloomberg say the proposed "Medicaid policies could add close to $1 billion annually in new state Medicaid costs to New York."
They say the only way to compensate would be for them to cut millions from other programs.
They call a separate federal proposal "devastating" to the city's Health and Hospitals Corp., saying it would mean closing nearly all neighborhood clinics while still leaving millions of New Yorkers without insurance.
And they argue that "all of the major financing options -- from Medicare cuts, to Medicare tax increases, to excise taxes on higher-cost health plans -- can be expected to extract more revenue/savings from New Yorkers than the per capita national average."
The city estimates the difference would mean the cost for each New Yorker would be 23 percent above the national average.
In other words, "reform" for the rest of the country will mean pain for New York.
I've noted before the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's warning against the bad habit of New York liberals taking money from home and shipping it to Washington, which then uses it to subsidize other states.
[snip]
The health-care bills would exacerbate the problem. The prescription is a no vote.
Obama’s Safe School Czar Passed Out Gay Bar Guides to Teens Only in the Obama White House can a man with a history of handing out bar guides to teens be promoted to Safe Schools Czar. Fox Nation
UPDATE: Sen. Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise; Took on taxpayer-funded trip to Asia... Drudge Report === The moral outrage from the Dems will be deafening, right? Maybe Baucus faces the months of phony journalism articles like Gov. Sanford did, right? Immorality is okay for Dems because they don’t pretend to be honest and moral, right? Not to worry, Polosi will drain the swamp.
Handing out gay bar guides to teens below the legal drinking age? What did he think the teens were going to do in these bars? It boggles the mind. Jennings needs to go, and NOW!
Jennings is so sick, he thought he was doing these young teens a favor. I don’t want him in a position to do a favor like this for teens, or anyone for that matter. Sick-o jerk.
43 comments:
Fistgate V: Youth Fisting Instructor Claims Kevin Jennings Knew About Class Content in Advance
(GatewayPundit)
In March 2000 Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was the keynote speaker at a controversial youth conference at Tuft’s University.
snip
She later said that she was disappointed that she became the Fistgate scapegoat. She also said that the organizers knew beforehand what the “sexuality educators” would discuss with children at the “fisting” workshop.
Kevin Jennings, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee, was one of the organizers of the “educational” material at the state level.
Mass Resistance blog reported: Jennings, after all, worked hand in hand with the Mass. Department of Education from the beginning, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee, which set up the statewide program, “Safe Schools for Gay and Lesbian Students” in the DOE.
That is the program the fisting workshop instructors worked for…
Rod Dreher wrote in the Weekly Standard (July 2000): The [Fistgate] tapes went out anyway [despite GLSEN's threat of a lawsuit for "illegal wiretapping"] and became a talk radio sensation. On May 19, state education chief
David Driscoll canned Abels and Netherland and terminated Gaucher’s contract. But Driscoll also insisted that the controversial workshop was an aberration that shouldn’t be allowed to derail the entire program.
Abels fumed to the press that the education department had known perfectly well what she had been doing for years and hadn’t cared until the tapes had surfaced.
Camenker, ironically, agreed.
The Mass News website also confirmed this in 2001, via Mass Resistance: “[W]e flew sort of below the radar screen for a long time,” Margot Abels told Boston’s homosexual newspaper, Bay Windows.
She taught them sex because she thought she knew better than the parents what should be taught to the children. She says she had the support of state officials during her seven years at the state Department of Education.
“We always knew that we were working in an area that in certain places was considered really controversial and we also knew that we were doing cutting edge work and that there are plenty of people that don’t support doing work with gay kids.
But I think that we flew sort of below the radar screen for a long time and were able to, and had the complete support of our agency.
Maybe David Driscoll [Commissioner of Education] didn’t always know everything that we did, but certainly our supervisors did,” said Abels.
And, in an interview in Ocotber 2001 with Massachusetts News Brian Camenker from Mass Resistance also confirmed that the DOE leadership knew exactly what was being promoted at the GLSEN meetings:
Camenker: Well you see the DOE tried to paint her as this anomaly, someone who just came in and did something bad. The department is made up of people just as radical as she is and in many cases more radical.
And so, when Driscoll, the Commissioner, and the others tried to say that what she had done was unusual and said it would never happen again, they were a bunch of liars.
In fact, they weren’t shocked at all. They knew what was going on. They helped her plan it and they approved it at every level.
When the people there heard about what she was doing when we first told them about it, they weren’t surprised.
This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the DOE knew about it and planned it and was actually very comfortable with what she did. The only reason that they fired her was because of the immense public outrage.
Kevin Jennings, as co-chair of the Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth education committee and founder of GLSEN, helped plan and organize the “educational material” at the conference.
Today Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama’s National Safe School Czar.
Sean Hannity & Michelle Malkin Break Media Silence on Fistgate & Obama’s Dangerous Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings (Video) (GatewayPundit)
Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin broke the media silence on Fistgate, GLSEN and Obama’s deranged Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings.
Hannity says he won’t stop talking about Kevin Jennings until he is fired.
Fistgate IV: Obama’s Safe Schools Czar Passed Out Gay Bar Guides to Teens at GLSEN Events
(GatewayPundit)
Only in the Obama White House can a man with a history of handing out bar guides to teens be promoted to Safe Schools Czar.
Earlier today it was reported that Kevin Jennings’ Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) organization was distributing gay bar directories to high school students at the 2005 Massachusetts GLSEN conference.
This wasn’t an isolated incident.
Mass Resistance Blog today reported that GLSEN passed out directories to gay “leather” bars to teens at several of their events.
GLSEN organization also passed out guides to gay leather bars in Chicago to students in 2000.
World Net Daily reported:
LaBarbera questioned why GLSEN’s organizers — already bruising over the recent arrest of a Chicago GLSEN leader for soliciting sex with an underage boy (GLSEN expelled the man) — did not take the “simple step of keeping these gay sex club ads from reaching the teenagers in their care.”
“For years, GLSEN has claimed to protect ‘at-risk’ kids. But they are now helping put young teenage boys at risk by uncritically passing out a gay guide that hawks anonymous sex clubs and ‘leather’ bars in Chicago,” he said.
“This fits into a pattern of GLSEN failing to shield its young followers from a homosexual male sexual culture that not only tolerates, but often celebrates promiscuity.” (At last year’s GLSEN conference in Atlanta, a similar sexually-laden booklet was passed out to attendees.)
Jennings’ organization handed out bar guides to teenagers.
Today Kevin Jennings is Barack Obama’s Safe Schools Czar. You figure it out.
Congressman Burgess calls on Obama to fire Jennings (Washington Times-Water Cooler)
Rep. Mike Burgess (R - TX) wrote to President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan today, referencing today's Washington Times editorial on Safe and Drug-Free Schools, Assistant Deputy Secretary Kevin Jennings.
The congressman requested Mr. Obama dismiss Mr. Jennings from his job as the Department's Safe School's Czar. Mr Burgess addressed his concerns on the presidential appointee.
Nielsen Business Media folds Editor & Publisher (Poynter Online)(Too good not to be posted again)
Editor and Publisher just slimed Sarah Palin yesterday and now it's gutted like a dead moose. The execrable Greg Mitchell is out of work right here before Christmas!
Today, we announced that Nielsen Business Media has reached an agreement with e5 Global Media Holdings, LLC, a new company formed jointly by Pluribus Capital Management and Guggenheim Partners, for the sale of eight brands in the Media and Entertainment Group, including Adweek, Brandweek, Mediaweek, The Clio Awards, Backstage, Billboard, Film Journal International and The Hollywood Reporter.
e5 Global Media Holdings has also agreed to acquire our Film Expo business, which includes the ShoWest, ShowEast, Cinema Expo International and CineAsia trade shows.
In addition, we’ve made the decision to cease operations for Editor & Publisher and Kirkus Reviews.
This move will allow us to strengthen investment in our core businesses – those parts of our portfolio that have the greatest potential for growth – and ensure our long-term success.
We remain committed to building our trade show group and affiliated brands. These assets continue to be a key part of The Nielsen Company’s overall portfolio and we strongly believe they are positioned to grow as the economy recovers.
In addition, we’ll continue to assess the strategic fit of our remaining portfolio of publications.
As a result of these decisions, many of our friends and colleagues within these businesses will be leaving the company or will begin to transition to the new ownership immediately.
These venerable brands have long been an important part of our Business Media family, and we are pleased that e5 will continue to capitalize on the brands’ potential.
The transition is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Pluribus Capital was founded in 2009 by James Finkelstein, George Green and Matthew Doull to focus on acquiring and managing industry leading media properties with high growth potential, particularly those with strong brand recognition across multiple platforms including digital, print and events.
Guggenheim Partners is a privately held, diversified financial services firm. Both Pluribus and Guggenheim have strong track records of successfully managing investments in a variety of companies.
I want to take this opportunity to offer heartfelt thanks to our colleagues who will be leaving the company for their dedication and commitment to Nielsen over the years.
Please join me in wishing them well in their future endeavors.
Regards,
Greg Farrar President Nielsen Business Media
*OBITUARY* Editor & Publisher (1901-2009)
This is NOT the handwriting on the wall. This is the thundering, rumbling sound the wrecking ball makes just before knocks the wall down!”
The editor, Greg Mitchell, was a shameless and dishonest dirty socialist what politicized the publication far, far beyond the scope of its mission.
Editor & Publisher died today, after a length illness.
Reportedly, the self described “America’s Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry” succumbed to ink poisoning.
A 2001 survey of 350 newspapers in six states indicated that copy editors and their supervisors were more likely to read E&P than any other magazine in the journalistic trade press, with 80.6% of copy editors and 90.6% of supervisors reporting that they read it either regularly or occasionally.
It’s last editor was Greg Mitchell.
Greg Mitchell’s books, in case you didn’t know his leftist politics...
* The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s E.P.I.C. Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics by Greg Mitchell (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1991), ISBN 0-87113-467-5 Winner of the 1993 Goldsmith Book Prize
* Hiroshima in America: A Half Century of Denial by Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell (Avon Books, 1996), ISBN 0-380-72764-1 (Diane Pub Co, 1995), (Putnam Pub Group 1995), ISBN 0-399-14072-7 ISBN 0-7881-9992-7
* Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir by Greg Mitchell (Pocket Books, 2000), (Washington Square Press, 2002), ISBN 0-671-03532-0 ISBN 0-671-03531-2
* Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady: Richard Nixon Vs Helen Gahagan Douglas-Sexual Politics and the Red Scare, 1950 by Greg Mitchell (Random House Inc, 1998), ISBN 0-679-41621-8
* Truth.. and Consequences: 7 Who Would Not Be Silenced by Greg Mitchell (W W Norton & Co Inc, 1987), ISBN 0-934878-08-0
* Very Seventies: A Cultural History of the 1970S, from the Pages of Crawdaddy, Peter Knobler and Greg Mitchell (editors) (Fireside/Simon & Schuster, April 1, 1995), ISBN 0-684-80069-1 ISBN 0-02-022005-7
* Who Owns Death?: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions by Robert Jay Lifton; Greg Mitchell (William Morrow & Co, November 1, 2000), (Perennial, February 1, 2002), ISBN 0-380-79246-X ISBN 0-380-97498-3
* So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits — and the President — Failed in Iraq, by Greg Mitchell (Union Square Press, March 4, 2008) ISBN 1402756577 ISBN 978-1402756573
Editor & Publisher’s Been Folded
After years of covering the death of newspapers, we here at Fitz & Jen got to experience it first-hand this morning.
The Nielsen Company has made the decision to cease operations of E&P in its 125th year.
It’s early in this process, so it’s not clear yet whether there will be another print issue of magazine, or what will happen to the Fitz & Jen blog.
And while Editor and Publisher FAILED, Andrew Breitbart is launching journalism site - Big Journalism (Politico.com)
Online conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart announced Thursday that he is launching a new website in January designed to report its own original journalism and take on “the Democratic-media complex.”
The site – to be called Big Journalism – builds on the “Big” brand Breitbart launched in September with Big Hollywood and Big Government.
Both sites have made waves with stories exposing past controversial remarks by Obama administration officials and by featuring a series of videos of ACORN officials inappropriately offering advice to two conservative activists dressed up as a pimp and prostitute.
He also helps edit the Drudge Report and runs the news aggregator Breitbart.com.
Breitbart made the announcement in an interview with Mediate, telling the website covering media-related news that Big Journalism will be “the go-to site for solidly backed-up stories, sharp points of view, and really great writing.”
L.A. Times' Judgment Day Approaches (thewrap.com)
The food signup sheet for a holiday potluck party at the L.A. Times went up this week but, as with anything at this embattled news organization, the list was fraught with meaning.
“I wondered,” said one reporter, “what happens if so-and-so gets laid off and their name gets crossed out? There’ll be no Swedish meatballs this year.”
For weeks, rumors about 2009’s third round of layoffs have been bubbling up like methane from La Brea Tar Pits.
Many Times employees questioned say they’re not in the gossip loop, but others insist that a meeting of section editors will convene next week to get the ball rolling on dismissals.
Word variously places the date as Dec. 15 or Dec. 18 -- a Friday, the traditional pink slip day.
One silver-lining rumor has it that the hard-hit Metro section will be either nearly or completely spared this time around. Still, as one longtime writer observed, whatever happens is going to be perceived as unfair by any department that suffers cuts.
(No Times staffers who spoke to TheWrap agreed to be quoted by name.)
Management is spinning the pending dismissals not as not a new round of layoffs but merely a tapering off of October’s pink-slip blizzard, and after this holiday round of layoffs, none are expected until, possibly, the spring.
Scuttlebutt says the layoff figure could be as many as 40; the Times policy is to refuse to answer questions about layoff rumors.
That’s of little comfort to staffers who increasingly find their city’s newspaper of record having its editorial roster cut to the bone, with more writers putting in days that last as long as 18 hours.
The writers’ masthead is now on track to tap out at half of its former complement.
“We’re long past the point of signing petitions and standing up to make statements,” said a veteran writer about the mood at the paper in response to cutbacks.
“People are now looking for an effective, rational response, not one that’s been tried and found wanting in the past. Instead of dramatic speeches and walkouts, we’re putting stuff on the website that people want to read.”
All of this plays out against the backdrop of the bankruptcy struggle of the Times’ parent company, the Tribune Company.
One legal difficulty has been in trying to untangle the various business entities that comprise the densely integrated corporation.
One staffer sketched out three lose-lose possibilities, in which the current management under publisher Eddy Hartenstein consolidates power over the paper; or the paper’s creditors gain control and fire management, including Hartenstein; or new owners sell off Tribune’s individual pieces, sending all of them into the deep space of uncertainty.
For now anything goes, though, and Swedish meatballs are still on the menu.
Toronto Star says 166 employees take buyouts (The Canadian Press)
TORONTO — The Toronto Star says 166employees will take severance packages at the country's largest circulation daily newspaper as part of broad cost cuts.
Company spokesman Bob Hepburn said Wednesday that the Star accepted all of the applications made by staff from across its operations.
However, he stopped short of saying that this will wrap up job cuts at the newspaper for certain.
"All of this (will be) discussed with the union first," he said.
Earlier in the day, the Star confirmed that another 12 jobs had been eliminated at its operations, covering roles from editorial to management.
Hepburn said the layoffs include three editorial assistants, four graphic artists, a researcher and an office messenger. Also in the tally were two managers and one administrative assistant, which the company considered "departures" rather than layoffs.
Those employees have 90 days left at the company, under the union's collective agreement. During that period, the union could reach an agreement with the company, or find new roles for those employees within the organization.
Maureen Dawson, chairwoman of the Toronto Star unit of the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild, said with some workers leaving voluntarily, that could mean other employees lined up to lose their jobs could instead find a new position at the company.
"That will be a discussion we'll be having in the coming months for sure," she said.
The cuts come as the newspaper's parent company, Torstar Corp.
(TSX:TS.B), moves ahead with what it says will likely be the biggest restructuring in the Toronto Star's history.
Torstar had already announced plans to cut as many as 121 editorial jobs at the Star, which includes outsourcing some of its operations, in a move it says could save the company more than $4million a year.
The Star employs about 1,300 staff across all its divisions, including its press centre in Vaughan.
Dems Cut Funds For Jailing Illegal Aliens
WASHINGTON – California and other financially strapped states will lose tens of millions of federal dollars that they spend to jail illegal immigrants charged with crimes, under Congress’ latest spending bill.
The $1.1 trillion plan, finalized by House and Senate negotiators Tuesday night, combines six of the large yearly appropriations bills passed by Congress to keep the government running.
State officials and members of the California congressional delegation had lobbied hard once again to increase aid to the states for the program, hoping to cash in on California’s increased clout in Washington this year.
But their efforts fell flat, with the program set to be cut by more than 18 percent...
snip
Tom McClintock of Elk Grove said the federal government should be paying the entire bill.
"I think the federal government has a 100 percent responsibility to fund the incarceration of illegal aliens since the federal government has exclusive responsibility over the integrity of our borders," he said.
"Not one of those illegal aliens would be in our prisons today, nor would it have been possible for them to commit their crimes, had it not been for the abandonment by the federal government under Republican and Democratic administrations to protect the integrity of our borders."
It makes sense that Mr. Obama and the Democrats in Congress would do this. Illegal aliens can’t vote while they are in prison for some niggling crime.
And of course shutting down our prison system in toto has been a lifelong dream of the Democrats’ sugar daddy, George Soros.
Congress Ethics Rank Below Car Salesmen
PRINCETON, NJ — For the first time in Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, a majority of Americans — 55% — say the honesty and ethical standards of "members of Congress" are low or very low — slightly worse than "senators," whose ethics are rated low by 49%.
By contrast, 83% of Americans say nurses have either very high or high ethical standards, positioning them at the top of Gallup’s 2009 ranking of various professions...
Bottom Line
Congress has long ranked among the worst-rated professions on Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions list.
Now, it has earned the unwelcome distinction of having a majority of Americans rate its integrity as low or very low...
We’re not quite sure how this is news. Or why it should have taken so long for Gallup to notice.
And notice how Gallup’s chart still puts Congress above car salesmen, even though their aggregate number is lower.
By the way, note too who are at the very top of the Gallup rankings. People from our supposedly despised healthcare system.
How Liberals “Help” the Homeless: Shelter Gave Fed $ to Democrats (Debbie Schlussel)
People have the faulty impression that only liberals care about the homeless. Wrong. It’s just that conservatives have a different way of doing it.
And liberals . . . well, some of them “help” the homeless by using federal dollars for the homeless to fund Democrat political candidates and office holders.
That’s exactly what Jon Rutherford, director of Metro Emergency Services, a homeless shelter, and his bookkeeper, Judith Bugaiski, did.
They were indicted in 2006, and yesterday, pleaded guilty. And–shocker!–Detroit’s embattled former Mayor Kwame “The Kingpin” Kilpatrick is involved, as is failed Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm.
The two top officials of a homeless shelter accused of funneling $750,000 in taxpayer dollars to political causes associated with officials ranging from Kwame Kilpatrick to Gov. Jennifer Granholm pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal tax evasion charges.
Jon Rutherford, director of Metro Emergency Services, and bookkeeper Judith Bugaiski were indicted in 2006 on a combined 22 counts.
They both appeared Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani and pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to evade federal taxes, in exchange for dismissal of the other charges.
Prosecutors allege Rutherford, 60, of Orchard Lake, a major contributor to Michigan Democrats, created a shell company to collect rent from the shelter, then channeled that money to political causes.
As a nonprofit, the shelter would have lost its tax-exempt status if it made political donations.
According to documents the Free Press obtained, IRS investigators said the shell company “spends virtually every dollar it receives” from the shelter “on either so-called charitable contributions, political contributions, political action committees and to individuals.”
The IRS said recipients of thousands of dollars included the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, Kilpatrick’s Next Generation PAC and Granholm’s 1998 inauguration party.
The IRS probe stems from a 2001 Free Press report that revealed Rutherford gave $50,000 to the nonprofit Kilpatrick Civic Fund during Kilpatrick’s 2001 run for mayor.
Kilpatrick, then an influential state representative, subsequently wrote a letter to the Detroit-Wayne County Mental Health Board, recommending it give Rutherford a multimillion-dollar contract.
Enabling ACORN's Comeback (American spectator) ACORN may be the Dem’s best hope in 2010 - get the dead, incarcerated and criminally insane to vote. Multiple times.
Congress -- and possibly Citigroup -- may be gearing up to start funding the organized crime syndicate ACORN again. The current federal funding ban expires Dec. 18
On Tuesday evening the House Appropriations Committee rejected on a party line vote of 9 to 5 an amendment offered by Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa) that would have blocked federal funding of the radical advocacy group.
The amendment was needed because the Obama administration thumbed its nose at a provision in spending legislation that banned ACORN funding until the end of next week.
In a ruling revealed late last month by the Justice Department the Obama administration invented a loophole allowing the government to continue funding the president's friends at ACORN.
Through the magic of legal interpretation, the language forbidding funding the group was transformed by Acting Assistant Attorney General David J. Barron into a requirement not "to refuse payment on binding contractual obligations that predate" the original funding ban.
Latham's amendment would have closed the loophole by banning funding for ACORN, including any funding covering "a contract or other agreement entered into before the date of the enactment of this or any such other Act."
The bottom line is that the ACORN funding prohibition language remains in the massive fiscal 2010 spending measure taken up by appropriators this week but ACORN ally Eric Holder's Justice Department has rendered that language virtually meaningless.
Dems Vote Again to Fund Corrupt ACORN With Taxpayer Dollars(GatewayPundit)
In March Senate Democrats voted to fund ACORN in their National Service Act by a part line vote of 53-43.
ACORN is the largest radical leftist group in America today.
This radical group worked closely with the Obama camp during the election. But, the community organizing group was not open about this.
One of Barack Obama’s first big “community organizer” jobs involved ACORN in 1992. He has been working along side ACORN since before he became an elected official.
Obama also trained ACORN employees. He represented ACORN in court. Obama worked with and protested with ACORN. His campaign donated $800,000 to ACORN in 2008 for voter registration efforts.
And, ACORN even canvassed for Obama last year.
Yesterday, Democrats voted again to fund the corrupt leftist organization ACORN.
Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) reported at Big Government: Last night, defying the will of a bipartisan majority of the House and Senate, Democrats voted to allow the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to receive federal taxpayer dollars.
In September, large Congressional majorities in both houses voted to sever all ties between the federal government and ACORN. The Senate vote was 85-11; the House vote was 345-75.
You’d think that those votes, which USA Today described as prohibiting “any federal funding for the community organizing group,” would have settled the matter. You’d be wrong.
Months later, with the country’s focus on jobs, healthcare, and the Global War on Terror, Democrats are moving to restore funding to ACORN.
Last night, Rep. Tom Latham (R-IA) offered an amendment during deliberations on the Democrats’ massive year-end appropriations bill to clarify the prohibition on federal funds going to ACORN or its subsidiaries.
That amendment was shot down on a 5-9 party line vote as Republicans sided with taxpayers while Democrats stood with ACORN.
Rep. Latham’s amendment is necessary to prevent taxpayer money from going to ACORN because the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice has taken advantage of a legal loophole to allow ACORN to continue to receive federal funds – despite the passage of the House GOP’s Defund ACORN Act in the fall.
White House's Acorn Cookies Surprises Republican Lawmaker
(FOX News)
Any fan of Cookie Monster on Sesame Street knows that "C" is for cookie.
"But at the Obama White House, "A" may be for acorn -- as in acorn cookies served at Monday's annual Christmas party.
The chocolate cookies shaped like an acorn were quite a hit with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa.
"I didn't expect to see such stark symbolism," King said in an e-mail."
Gov't program only helps 31,000 out of 760,000 borrowers so far (AP)
WASHINGTON – Just over 31,000 homeowners have received permanent loan modifications under the Obama administration's mortgage relief plan, a big setback for the government's embattled effort to stem the foreclosure crisis.
Lenders blame the low success rate — only about 4 percent of the nearly 760,000 borrowers who have signed up — on borrowers who don't return the necessary paperwork to complete the process.
Bank of America Corp., for example, had only completed 98 modifications at the end of November, far fewer than several smaller rivals. GMAC Mortgage completed 7,100, the most of any lender in the program, which was launched in March.
Tough road for Rangel on tax push (Tax-cheat Charlie will press tax-cheat Timmy) (The Hill)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) wants to push a tax reform overhaul through Congress in 2010.
The question is whether anyone will get behind the proposal offered by the embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats’ agenda for 2010 is already crowded with a number of priorities, and the looming election will have leaders carefully selecting what to take up.
There’s also the question of the ethics investigations targeting Rangel, which have weakened the chairman of one of Congress’s most powerful panels.
Rangel appears undeterred, and there are many reasons to think 2010 will be a big year for taxes.
It has been more than 20 years since the last great tax reform, and the expiration of some of former President George W. Bush’s individual tax cuts could give reform an impetus.
It’s also a priority for the chairman of the House’s tax-writing panel.
On Tuesday, Rangel said he’ll press Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner this week to support broad tax reform in 2010.
Rangel told executives at a PricewaterhouseCoopers symposium that he wants to “persuade” Geithner and members of his committee that they would serve Congress and the country better “if we reform the tax system that we have.”
Sarah Palin Says Critics Of Her WaPo Op-ed 'Got All Wee-Weed Up'
(Newsbusters.org)
Showing the sense of humor millions of Americans fell in love with last year, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said Thursday that critics of her previous day's op-ed in the Washington Post
"kind of got all wee-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers."
Palin, chatting with conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham, was obviously poking fun at something President Obama said over the summer:
"There's something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up."
According to Palin, who might have been referring to derogatory comments from folks like MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Keith Olbermann, such was the reaction to her published views on global warming and the United Nations climate change conference currently taking place in Copenhagen.
Dalai Lama: Obama's Nobel Prize Is 'A Little Early' (Fox News) The Dalai Lama is right. 0ba-Mao hasn’t done nearly as much as Arafat did.
The exiled Tibetan leader won the Nobel Peace Prize 20 years ago for his peaceful opposition to Chinese rule in his country, but believes President Obama was awarded the prize "a little" too soon.
Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech: Where's Kanye West when you need him? (The Telegraph)
It was one of the lowest moments in 2009 for American celebrity. Taylor Swift was accepting her MTV Music Video Award for best female artist, but Kanye West thought he knew better.
He leapt on stage, nicked the microphone, and offered this crude interruption:
“Taylor, I’m really happy for you, and I’mma let you finish. But Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time.” Beyoncé looked on, smiling at first, then – as his rant continued – with increasing alarm.
It became an internet phenomenon. The words “I’mma let you finish” were plastered onto image after image online, and Kanye West was universally condemned.
He was even called a “jackass” by Barack Obama.
But we really could have done with Kanye West today, during the US President’s acceptance speech for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Others are “far more deserving than I” he said, adding that he received the award with “deep gratitude and great humility”.
Great humility? More like great humiliation.
Obama does not deserve this prize. He knows it. And America knows it (just 19% of the US public think it was deserved).
In fact, the only people that don’t know it are the “Distinguished Members” of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Obama, the Empty-suit Nobel Laureate (The Washington Times)
The decision to award Mr. Obama the peace prize was made during the period of irrational exuberance - the Obamamania - that attended his ascent to power.
Nominations closed Feb. 1, when he had been in office less than two weeks.
The lingering sense developed that the noteworthy achievement the committee wanted to recognize was either that Mr. Obama was not George W. Bush, or that he was black.
Unless you are Barack Hussein Obama, you generally don't get awards in life for just showing up.
Norway Should Apologize for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (MensNewsDaily.com )
Most descriptions of the award of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama have been shortened.
The Nobel Prize website says it has been awarded to Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
One of the criticisms of this award is that it was decided after Obama was in office for only 9 days.
Having actually expended very little effort, other than campaigning for the office, and having actually accomplished nothing seems antithetic to the letter and spirit of Alfred Nobel's desire to reward and acknowledge those who have done the most for humanity.
One must wonder, if awards are now given on the basis of hope for some desirable change, whether the awardee will live up to expectations.
As he receives the award, many people are wondering how he'll “thread the needle” to comment on his new Afghanistan “surge” strategy; obviously recalling how much the left complained when Bush did it.
But perhaps more to the point, in context; let's reflect a little on a past nominee, Adolf Hitler, and how well Obama stacks up.
Hitler after all, formed an alliance with Japan, united Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia in the current spirit of the EU, negotiated non-aggression pacts with Poland and the Soviet Union, and made peace with Neville Chamberlain in the United Kingdom.
As a result of his efforts, a strong international community developed and the role of the United Nations grew.
In fact, had it not been for the stubborn resistance of right-wing zealots, World War II could have been completely avoided and all of Europe would have united by the middle of the last century – with the prospect of “global governance” not far away.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee can't stop mentioning Obama's political commitment to the issue of global warming.
As Obama steps up to the podium today to accept the prize, the world is waking up to the fact that the global warming scare has all been propaganda.
The objective is not unlike what Hitler had in mind and there are no assurances that another world-war will not result from the effort.
When the award was given to Al Gore and the IPCC two years ago, also for their efforts in promoting the global warming scam, it has been clear that the Norwegian committee is a tool in a new game of centralizing political power, promoting corruption, and waging war against democracy and freedom. Perhaps an apology isn't enough.
Bolton: Obama's 'Pedestrian, Turgid, and Uninspired' Address (The National Review)
Earlier today, Pres. Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in a ceremony in Oslo. Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama’s address in the Norwegian capital was “pedestrian, turgid, and uninspired.”
“It followed the standard international leftist line,” says Bolton. “He played to the crowd and filled the speech with clichés from the American and international left by saying ‘America cannot act alone’ and that he ‘prohibited torture.’
The speech was also typical of Obama in its self-centeredness and ‘something for everybody’ approach.”
“It was so diffuse that though I wouldn’t call it incoherent, it was getting close,” says Bolton.
“It was a lot about him, again, especially with his comments about being at the ‘beginning, not end’ of his labors for the world.”
Obama made some “breathtakingly simpleminded statements in his section on humanity’s history of war and the ‘hard truth’ that war will not end in our lifetimes,” adds Bolton.
“No kidding. I don’t know what that is supposed to prove.”
GE wins $1.4 billion wind farm contract (cnet.com) Wow, look at that. Another contract for a big Obama donor.
Power company Caithness Energy has given General Electric a $1.4 billion contract to supply wind turbines and 10 years' worth of maintenance for an Oregon wind farm, GE announced Thursday.
The massive 845-megawatt wind farm, Shepherds Flat, will be located near Arlington, Oregon, but span approximately 30 square miles and cover parts of Oregon's Gilliam and Morrow Counties.
He (the GE president) “paid” Obama back today with (another) serial condemnation of “excessive” pay (for executives of companies, NOT unions, government workers, or democrat thugs (er, ACORN) extortionists ....) Follow the money.
Reid it and weep: Harry's history hooey (NY Post )
The Democratic leadership, in its efforts to destroy the US economy by passing an ill-conceived health plan, has sunk to a new low (" 'Slavery' Slur at GOPers," Dec. 8).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's tirade, accusing the Republican Party of using the same tactics as those supporting slavery, is a desperate attempt to distort a debate about spending.
It was President Lincoln, a Republican, who freed the slaves as Southern Democrats revolted.
Reid is a disgrace to the ethical values necessary to serve this nation.
All the issues Reid brought up were directly in support of individual freedoms.
Passing this health monstrosity takes some of those very freedoms away.
Harry Reid Cancels New Orleans Fundraiser With Mary Landrieu (GatewayPundit)
The fundraiser for Harry Reid in New Orleans this weekend has been cancelled. Reid and Landrieu say they will be in Washington working on ramming through Obamacare.
Harry Reid gifted Landrieu with $300 million after her vote to open debate on Obamacare.
It was announced around the same time that she would hold a fundraiser for Harry Reid in December.
NOLA.com reported: A New Orleans fundraiser scheduled Saturday for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has been canceled as the Senate expects to stay in session over the weekend to continue consideration on the health care overhaul bill.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and political strategist James Carville were to host a brunch for Reid at the St. Charles Avenue home of businessman David Voelker.
The entry level contribution was $4,800. Landrieu’s office said she would not be in Louisiana this weekend because she will be working on the health care legislation, which is likely to be shaped by floor votes
House Democrats pass $447B omnibus (The Hill)
House Democrats passed a massive $447 billion appropriations conference report Thursday to fund a host of different government agencies in fiscal 2010.
The conference report, approved on a 221-202 vote, didn't get any support from House Republicans, who raised concerns about spending increases.
snip
GOP members raised concerns that the bills will contribute to a 12 percent discretionary spending increase over last year.
"Sadly, the misplaced priorities of this Congress have resulted in too much spending, fewer jobs and bigger government that the public doesn’t want and can’t afford," said Rep. Jerry Lewis (Calif.), the top House GOP appropriator.
The tip of the Climategate iceberg (Washington Times)
A skeptical public repeatedly has been told that questions about purported global warming are closed.
"I think everybody is clear on the science. I think scientists are clear on the science ...
I think that this notion that there's some debate ... on the science is kind of silly," said President Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs when asked Monday about the president's response to the controversy. The flack was talking smack.
Contrary to the whitewash job conducted by propagandists, there are 450 academic peer-reviewed journal articles questioning the importance of man-made global warming.
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine has collected more than 30,000 American scientists urging the U.S. government to reject the Kyoto Treaty, which pushes draconian measures to reduce carbon emissions.
Much hay is made of 2,500 United Nations scientists who back Kyoto, but there are many more scientists with Ph.D.s among the 30,000 skeptics than there are among the oft-cited 2,500, most of whom are government bureaucrats without advanced degrees.
That's hardly meant to be a blanket endorsement of the work done by all those holding doctorates in the field.
There are significant problems with the three most-relied-on data series used by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment report.
The report was derived from research at the University of East Anglia, NASA and the British...
EPA Scientist Silenced in Coverup (Human Events)
Monday’s declaration by the Environmental Protection Administration that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health is apparently a regulatory fraud.
It was made after EPA regulators refused to consider a report from a leading EPA scientist rejecting the theory that emission of greenhouse gases causes global warming.
The EPA’s highly-publicized action declared, “…GHGs [greenhouse gases] are the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.”
The EPA declaration was puffed to the media as the way the Obama administration could impose limits on carbon dioxide emissions despite the fact that its “cap and trade” bill -- which passed the House earlier this year -- remains stalled in the Senate.
It was obviously intended to increase pressure on the Senate to pass the House “cap and tax” bill and to give Obama leeway in Copenhagen to promise -- perhaps even agree to treaty limitations -- on U.S. carbon emissions.
...And now the EPA has its own “Climategate.” It is in the report by EPA’s Dr. Alan Carlin who was -- according to this July 16 letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson -- subjected to a gag order.
The March 16, 2009 report by Dr. Alan Carlin says -- among other things -- that “As of the best information we currently have, the GHG/CO2 hypothesis as to the cause of global warming, which this Draft TSD supports, is currently an invalid hypothesis from a scientific viewpoint because it fails a number of critical comparisons with available observable data.
Any one of these failings should be enough to invalidate the hypothesis;
Republicans Plan to Form Counter-Delegation at Climate Conference
(Fox)
A GOP counter-delegation is forming to undermine the Obama administration's work on an international climate change agreement in Copenhagen, warning that the president is poised to make commitments he can't keep and drawing heightened attention to controversial leaked e-mails.
At least a half-dozen Republican senators and representatives are planning to head to Denmark next week, as part of the overall U.S. congressional delegation, which includes plenty of Democrats as well.
But the Republicans have a markedly different agenda.
"Truth squad," is how Sen. Jim Inhofe spokesman Matt Dempsey described the GOP team.
He called the Democratic visitors to the conference the "doom squad."
The Oklahoma Republican and ardent global warming skeptic plans to head to Denmark along with Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and John Barrasso of Wyoming.
On the House side, Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Joe Barton of Texas and Darrell Issa of California are tentatively planning to attend.
Congress Considers $1.1 Trillion Spending Bill -- 2 billion for climate research!!( Fox)
Wow ... do you know how much data you can fabricate for $2 Billion?
Fabricated data is less than half the cost of real data. Think of the research that can be done with this..... it boggles the mind.
And $2 billion would be poured into climate change research, $75 million more than last year.
Congressional negotiators have come to an agreement on a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government after the middle of this month.
This spending bill would fund nine Cabinet agencies and all the programs within them for the fiscal year that began in October.
It also includes $49 billion for foreign aid, a third more than last year.
NASA would get $18.7 billion, almost a billion dollars more than last year.
A heating program for the poor would get $5.1 billion, about 40 percent more than President Obama requested.
Another $2.5 billion would go to high speed trains, in addition to the $8 billion in the stimulus package passed earlier this year.
But the bill cuts nearly $300 million from the $4.4 billion that Obama requested in economic and security aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Democrats also are using this spending bill to change the 1988 Dornan amendment, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding abortions in Washington, D.C. The bill adds the word "federal" to the amendment to allow the D.C. government to use local dollars for funding abortion.
Republican critics say this is an accounting gimmick to find a way to use public dollars to pay for abortions.
The House could vote on this bill as early as Thursday.
Tycoon: Finance Gap May Doom Climate Talks [Soros Demands Additional $100 Billion]
CBSNews
Money Proposed by Rich Nations to Help Poor Adapt to Climate Change is Insufficient, Says U.S. Billionaire George Soros
George Soros, businessman and philanthropist, announces during a press conference a plan to generate an additional 100 billion US dollars for climate change relief at the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen
The $10 billion a year proposed by rich nations to help the poor adapt to climate change is "not sufficient" and the gap between what's offered and what's needed could wreck the Copenhagen climate conference, American billionaire George Soros said Thursday.
At a European Union summit in Brussels, meanwhile, wealthier members of the 27-nation bloc were having to press poorer, reluctant neighbors in Eastern Europe to contribute to the $10 billion fund.
"Europe should take its fair share" of the $5 billion to $7 billion a year target sum for 2010-2012, said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
The EU is expected to announce later Thursday the amount of money it will offer to impoverished, developing nations.
Britain has said it will contribute $1.3 billion over three years, and Sweden will give euro800million ($1.2 billion). German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany would contribute but gave no figure.
The Healthcare Polling Data That Has Democrats So Freaked Out
(The Business Insider)
Polled support for the health care plan wending its way through Congress continues to crash downward in the polls.
And before you say it, it's not just Rasmussen, which has actually been pretty much in the middle of the other polls. Here's where we stand as of today.
For reform advocates, this is not good news. At 40% approval, it probably passes. At 30% approval--what Social Security reform enjoyed by the time it imploded--it's not going to no matter how the Senate massages their plan.
Democrats cannot pass a bill this large on a straight party line vote if the only people in the country who want it are Democrats.
Where is the line crossed between "probably will" and "probably won't"?
In September, a seasoned political reporter told me that the numbers could not go "much lower" before Democrats were forced to abandon the bill. Well, it's lower--and the disapproval is spiking.
The silver lining in this for reform advocates over the last few days has been Nate Silver's argument that a significant portion of the opposition to the plan was coming from the left:
Ipsos also asked a parallel question of people who supported the plan: did any of them support the plan because they oppose health care reform and thought that the plan was sufficiently watered-down so as to "keep health care reform from happening"?
A small number of people picked this response: about 10 percent of those in favor of the plan, or 3 percent of the entire sample.
Combining these numbers together, we get the following:
We'll cover everyone by covering less? DeathCare (MilwaukeeJournal-Sentinel)
We'll cover everyone by covering less?
Now, said the Senate to us sheep, we'll do health care this way: No public option. Just a, um, public option.
Senate Democrats' leaders, looking to pass something, on Tuesday night dropped the notion of a government-run health plan.
Too many of their less liberal members recognized a money pit when they saw one. Instead, the plan is to let more middle-aged people join their elders in Medicare.
Uh, guys: Medicare is government-run. It's eight years away from fiscal ruin, its own trustees reported earlier this year. This deal trades a dysfunctional plan for a laughable one.
It also reveals the futility of Obamacare reaching one of its key goals: slowing the rise in health care spending. Congress' plans all do this in part by cutting Medicare by as much as a half-trillion dollars.
Now the Senate would put perhaps 3 million more subsidized clients on that Titanic. There will be no cuts, only swifter collapse.
10 Million Could Lose Employer Coverage Under Senate Health Bill, CBO Says (FOXNews.com)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 10 million people could lose their employer-based insurance coverage under the Senate's health care reform bill.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that up to 10 million people could lose their employer-based insurance coverage under the Senate's health care reform bill.
In new figures out Monday, the nonpartisan office said the net loss would add up to about 5 million -- the anticipated loss of employer coverage on one end would be offset in part by the expectation that a new mandate would drive other employers to cover millions more workers who are not currently covered.
But the estimate assumes many employers, particularly small businesses with low-wage workers, would opt to pay the fine and drop their insurance plans.
The CBO estimated this would affect between 9 million and 10 million workers.
The estimate was provided after Republicans pressed the CBO for details on employer coverage, and it added fuel to the GOP argument that President Obama's claim that nobody will be forced to give up their private coverage is bunk.
It comes in the middle of a heated debate in the Senate over whether and how the government should enter the market with its own insurance plan.
"If you like what you have you can't keep it," the Senate Republican office said in an e-mail highlighting the CBO report and keying off the president's refrain.
Though some of those who lose their coverage would be eligible for government subsidies to buy insurance, some would not, according to the CBO.
For instance, a family of four making more than $88,000 would not qualify for subsidies and could face even higher premiums in the private market
Health alarm finally rouses Mike [Bloomberg]and gov (New York Post)
Better late than never, Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg have woken up to a pending disaster aimed at New York, otherwise known as the health-care overhaul.
A letter they wrote to Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand is so damning about the cost to the city and state that two questions arise.
First, why are Schumer and Gillibrand, along with local House Democrats, supporting legislation that would slam the home team?
Second, why did Paterson and Bloomberg not speak up sooner, given the Medicare cuts and tax hikes they suddenly worry about have been on the table all along?
Paterson and Bloomberg say the proposed "Medicaid policies could add close to $1 billion annually in new state Medicaid costs to New York."
They say the only way to compensate would be for them to cut millions from other programs.
They call a separate federal proposal "devastating" to the city's Health and Hospitals Corp., saying it would mean closing nearly all neighborhood clinics while still leaving millions of New Yorkers without insurance.
And they argue that "all of the major financing options -- from Medicare cuts, to Medicare tax increases, to excise taxes on higher-cost health plans -- can be expected to extract more revenue/savings from New Yorkers than the per capita national average."
The city estimates the difference would mean the cost for each New Yorker would be 23 percent above the national average.
In other words, "reform" for the rest of the country will mean pain for New York.
I've noted before the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's warning against the bad habit of New York liberals taking money from home and shipping it to Washington, which then uses it to subsidize other states.
[snip]
The health-care bills would exacerbate the problem. The prescription is a no vote.
Obama’s Safe School Czar Passed Out Gay Bar Guides to Teens
Only in the Obama White House can a man with a history of handing out bar guides to teens be promoted to Safe Schools Czar.
Fox Nation
UPDATE: Sen. Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise; Took on taxpayer-funded trip to Asia...
Drudge Report
===
The moral outrage from the Dems will be deafening, right? Maybe Baucus faces the months of phony journalism articles like Gov. Sanford did, right? Immorality is okay for Dems because they don’t pretend to be honest and moral, right? Not to worry, Polosi will drain the swamp.
Kevin Jennings scandal has legs - a congressman delivered a speech in the House calling for Jennings to be removed.
Handing out gay bar guides to teens below the legal drinking age? What did he think the teens were going to do in these bars? It boggles the mind. Jennings needs to go, and NOW!
Jennings is so sick, he thought he was doing these young teens a favor. I don’t want him in a position to do a favor like this for teens, or anyone for that matter. Sick-o jerk.
Would you folks please find out about our Pension fund.
We don't care if you hate the President, I hated yours, George Bush.
Lets find out where our money is so we can go the grocery store when we retire.
WE don't care about gays or any right wing jerk like Rush says. Please just follow the money.
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